‘Daisy Jones & The Six’ an entertaining rock ride
Sometimes the first track on a rock album just doesn’t grab you. Neither does the second.
By the third, though, you’re beginning to absorb what the artist is putting out. You’re starting to dig it.
Soon you’re hooked, and by the time the record is done spinning — or the sequence of digital files has run its course — you’re sorry to see the experience end.
But you’re thankful for that bit of nourishment for your soul.
That’s roughly the case with “Daisy Jones & The Six,” a Prime Video limited series debuting this week that’s based on the novel of the same name by Taylor Jenkins Reid.
A 10-track affair, the story of a 1970s rock band that rocketed to superstardom based not just on their songs but also the obvious mutual attraction of their lead vocalists is inspired by the saga of Fleetwood Mac even if myriad differences exist with the tale of this fictional act.
Riley Keough’s enchanting-but-self-destructive Daisy Jones, with her flowing dresses and heavy drug use, is a fine stand-in for Mac vocalist Stevie Nicks, while Sam Claflin’s strong-willed-and-selfish singer-guitarist Billy Dunne works well as the show’s answer to Lindsey Buckingham. And although less crucial to the equation, Suki Waterhouse’s keyboardist Karen Sirko gives off some serious Christine McVie vibes.
The series begins by informing us that in October 1977, Daisy Jones & The Six played a sold-out show at Chicago’s massive Soldier Field. However, they would never perform together again, and, in the two decades that have passed, members of the band and its inner circle have said little about what happened. That is changing as they open up to a probing documentarian.
And so, via this flashback-heavy format, the series goes back in time to the band’s beginnings, minus Daisy, in Pittsburgh, when they were called the Dunne Brothers, as well as to Daisy’s attempts to get noticed as a singer-songwriter.
At the end of the day, “Daisy Jones & The Six” is pretty standard rock ‘n’ roll stuff — sex, drugs, love and, of course, music.
So go your own way if you choose, but this is a record worth giving a spin.